It won’t be long before our gardens will be overflowing with produce.  Or we’ll be visiting the Farmer’s Market and find a great buy on corn.  The fruit trees will be laden with ripe fruit and the raspberries ripen all at once.  The abundance of fruits, vegetables and herbs during the summer is one of the blessings of living in an agricultural area.

Once the harvest season starts you need to find a way to handle all that over-abundance of produce.  Canning and freezing your excess are good ways to preserve the abundant produce coming out of your garden and from the farmer’s markets.

These days I don’t do much canning.  I don’t have the time in my busy schedule because I continue to teach during the summer months.  I find that freezing offers me a great way to preserve the excess.  And it doesn’t take as much time as canning.  So usually at the beginning of summer I make sure that I have everything ready for the summer harvest.

The absolute first thing to do is to defrost the freezer.  Now you might not need to do this, but for me it is an annual chore.  Why?  Because I have a 1970’s massive upright freezer that is not frost free.  You might wonder why I just don’t buy a new freezer.  I have a couple of reasons.  First, this freezer still works well, except for the frost buildup.  Second, I can’t find the larger capacity to buy.  Most of the newer upright freezers are about half the capacity.

So I am about to tackle the “Big Defrost”.  And this year is worse than normal because I didn’t defrost it last summer.  What with having weddings, graduations, gall bladder surgery and the ‘big storm’ that demolished our fence and neighbor’s garden, I just didn’t have the time or the energy.  So I am planning my defrost strategy.

Keep in mind that this is a messy, wet job so dress in your work clothes.  Here are the steps to defrost your freezer.

How to Defrost Your Freezer…

Try to use up as much food as you can before you start

This is not a matter of pulling everything out.  You will want to start a week or two before your defrost and try to use up as much of the food as possible.  Cook that extra turkey you bought at Thanksgiving.  Make a pie or two from the frozen fruit.  Try to just eat out of your freezer so that you don’t waste food and you won’t have as much food left over to deal with.  This can also help with your food bill for a few weeks.  I just slowly go through the shelves each day looking for something that I can use for my meals.

Empty your freezer of food

Now you will need to actually empty out anything that remains.  Some of your options will include transferring items to the freezer attached to your refrigerator.  Finding a neighbor or friend who might have some spare freezer space.  Filling up an ice chest with frozen food.  Refrigerating anything that you can’t make room for so you can cook it up as it defrosts.  Hopefully at this point you won’t have a whole freezer full of food but most years I do have some food that I have to find freezer space for while I defrost.

Unplug your freezer and open the door

Turn off your freezer if it has a switch and then unplug it.  Open the door so that it will begin to defrost more quickly.  If you have not defrosted before, know that there will be water and it has to go some place.  Like all over your garage if you don’t deal with it.  So I use large bowls and pans to catch as much of the water as possible.   I put a large container on every shelf.  Then as they fill up I use it to water a shrub or just throw it onto the lawn.  The actual defrost time can take 3-4 hours or more depending on how much frost you have built up.  I have seen lots of suggestions to defrost more quickly such as using hot water, hair dryers and heat guns.  Not something that I have tried but if you want further information on this you might check out this post on How to defrost freezers with a heat gun from Tom’s Tek Stop.

Clear the surrounding area

Because water will leak out of your freezer, make sure that nothing valuable is hanging around.  I just remove any boxes or items that could be damaged by water.  I also have a stash of old towels that I use to soak up any leaks around the base of my freezer.

Clean your freezer

Once all of the ice has melted you will need to wash down the walls and give your freezer a good cleaning.  Use a gentle soap like dish washing soap along with warm water to wash all of the walls and shelves.  Start at the top and work your way down.  Be sure to clean the shelves in the door as well.  Finally use a soft, clean towel to dry your freezer.  Don’t forget to clean the outside of your freezer once you are done with the inside.

Plug your freezer back in

Once your freezer is sparkling clean it’s time to plug it in and turn it on.  It will take awhile to get the temperature cold enough to restock it.  If you don’t have a thermometer, put an ice cube tray with water in it onto a middle shelf.  Once the ice is frozen you know that you are safe to put any frozen food back in there.  Only restock your freezer with your foods that remained frozen.  If any of your foods actually defrosted it is not a good idea to refreeze them because of reduced nutritional quality.

Having a clean defrosted freezer is a wonderful way to start the harvest season.  You will now have frost free space to stack and store all of the wonderful produce that you are growing or buying.